Weekend Recap

After messing up our toe running through the yard late-afternoon Saturday, we didn't feel very computer friendly for the entirety of yesterday. More achy, tired and upset than being social or creative.

We were trying to go help The Stepdad, The Mother, Angry Brother and James lift a framed wall on the shed being built in the yard, we rammed our middle toe into a concrete foundation screw trying to rush, and ripped it up. We weren't wearing shoes, so obviously it was our dumb fault. It could have been worse, we could have stepped ON the screw we didn't see poking out...any number of them, really.

So we didn't accomplish anything after that, except sitting around.

We did makes some Salsa that finished in the canner right before our foot accident.

We named it 'Bite You In The Ass Gently' Salsa. Our own (new) recipe using roasted mole peppers, jalapeños, green peppers, garlic, onions, lemon juice, vinegar, a dash of cumin, and dehydrated shredded carrots (for a little sweetness)...and of course lots of garden fresh concassé* tomatoes.

We imagine, after a healthy downpour yesterday, that the tomatoes will be pooping with blood red juiciness at astounding rates, and we'll be doing a lot more canning of them this week to keep up - otherwise they go bad on the vine, or the fruit flies in the house will multiply, driving us crazy.

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*Concassé, a method we learned in culinary school, is the process of dipping tomatoes in hot water to remove the skin and seeds. We tend to leave the pips (seeds), to add a little more fiber to what we are making - unless it's better to remove them for a visual reasons.

We found this really straight forward video, if you want to see how it's done.

Productive Day

It's Friday. Have a drink. Listen to some music. It's summer...kick back.

We've been canning yummy food all day, pickled banana peppers, garden fresh tomato sauce, green tomato mincemeat. Green tomato mincemeat is a great use for tomatoes from a plant inflicted by blight, which is a fungal infection that becomes a problem as the tomato turns red and looks like this:

There are a couple of plants, of the many dozen, that have been producing tomatoes like this, so we figured we cut them to the quick, pick them green and make a mincemeat - a mixture of (sometimes, green tomatoes) raisins, apples, spices, lemon and orange zest, sugar, and vinegar. Mincemeat is commonly used in pies and pastries (it grew out of fashion some time ago, but is popular in Europe, and likely in the south). Also, we learned tonight, it's GREAT with plain, unsweetened, yogurt.

So...it's been a productive day:

4 pints pickled banana peppers
2 pints experimental cucumber pickles (we're developing some canning recipes)
5 pints garden fresh tomato sauce

6 pints green tomato mincemeat

Some of the production! Our tomato sauce!

Now, we kick back, listen to some Van Morrison (and many other artists) and enjoy a refreshment, or two...or three.



The point is, relax, it's summer...and it's coming to an end. We saw Halloween displays being set up at Menards (a local building/home improvement store) yesterday. Talk about scary.

Happy Friday, world.